Advent is the beginning of the Christian liturgical year. More than just ”getting ready for Christmas” it’s a season of spiritual discipline and reflection in preparation for celebrating the Incarnation, the coming of Jesus, the Word made flesh, into human history. Traditionally, the church challenges us to focus upon scriptures that emphasize the need for God to do a new thing in fulfillment of the promises God made to His Covenant people. One such scripture for the first Sunday of Advent is Jeremiah 33:14-16:

“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the House of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.'”

     Jeremiah was speaking to a people wondering if there was any hope for their nation. The throne of David and Jerusalem, symbols of their national identity, seemed powerless in the face of the Babylonian Empire. Jeremiah made it clear that such disaster was the result of the people’s faithlessness. They had wandered away from God’s purposes and had ignored the lord’s call to be a people of justice and righteousness. However; despite their failure to uphold their side of the covenant, Jeremiah promised a new day when, a ”righteous Branch” would spring up to redeem and restore the nation, turning the land into a place of true justice and righteousness.

     Christians see Jesus Christ as that righteous Branch. This passage asserts that the salvation Israel and Christians are promised is both an entry into a heavenly realm and also a restoration of God’s entire creation as a place where justice and righteousness truly reign supreme. It means that every Advent, we who seek to ‘follow Jesus are called, through repentance and renewal, to remember that the full meaning of the Incarnation can only be discovered by living the life of faith, hope, and love, a life of genuine justice and true righteousness.

     Advent isn’t just about ”getting ready” for a merry Christmas. It’s about examining where we fall short of fully loving God and neighbor and opening our hearts to the Lord of true righteousness. In a time when our society seems anxious and fearful about the days ahead, we are called to live faithfully so we can move ourselves and the world around us -closer to what God intends and what Jesus proclaimed. If we make that move, Christmas will be more than a spot on the calendar; it will be a step toward fulfilling the prayer that Jesus taught us, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

May it be so.

The Reverend Dr. David Comperry